At a hearing last Thursday, Judge William Pauley of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York denied the government ‘s request to delay a hearing date for American Civil Liberties Union et al. v. Clapper et al. The denial is the latest in the American Civil Liberties Union’s challenge to the Obama administration’s metadata collection practices, specifically collecting Verizon’s customer records.

On July 10, 2013, the Southern District of New York held that Apple played a central role in a conspiracy among major publishers to “eliminate retail price competition” in the e-book market. The court ruled that Apple was per se liable for violating Section 1 of the Sherman Act, finding “overwhelming evidence that the Publisher Defendants joined with each other in a horizontal price-fixing conspiracy” in which “Apple was a knowing and active member.”

Good Morning to You Productions Corp. (“GMTY”) sued Warner/Chappell Music, Inc. (“Warner/Chappell”), the copyright holder of “Happy Birthday to You.” GMTY seeks to invalidate the copyright, restore the song to the public domain, and force Warner/Chappell to repay substantial licensing fees. GMTY alleges that any valid copyright in the song expired long ago.

Burdens of Discovery for Scientific Working Materials and Deliberative Documents

Written by: Evelyn Y. Chang
Edited by: Jessica Vosgerchian

In March of 2012, British Petroleum sought court enforcement of a subpoena for “any conversation or discussion” made by researchers from WHOI regarding their studies on the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The court applied a balancing test that weighed BP’s need for the requested information against the burden placed on WHOI, and required the WHOI researchers disclose internal pre-publication materials relating to the studies cited in the government report.